Influence of flavor variety and color variety on consumer preference and choices of yogurt bundles

Abstract New product development can not only satisfy consumers’ need to seek variety but also is important for a company to achieve long-term financial success in the food market. Bundling is well known to be an efficient way to introduce new products, especially when new products are tied in with popular products. Here we report a study designed to investigate how the variation in the flavors of the items within a three-item food bundle (i.e., flavor variety) and the difference in the packaging colors of these items (i.e., color variety) may interact to influence consumers’ ratings and choices of the bundles. The participants were asked to rate their liking of and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for each three-yogurt bundle before choosing a more favorable bundle out of each two-bundle choice set. On one hand, the results revealed that participants preferred the bundles consisting of two of the same popular flavors and one new flavor over those consisting of three different new flavors. On the other hand, the results revealed the color variety of bundles modulated their preference for bundles consisting of one popular flavor and two different new flavors. Collectively, our findings demonstrated how the color of food packaging might be used as a marketing tool to influence consumers’ preference for bundles by modulating their perception of the flavor variety of food bundles. These findings shed light on how to skillfully design the packaging and assortment for foods.